“Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings.”

― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler

The group emerged from the long tunnels into shimmering bright sunlight. A pale blue sky hung overhead slightly tinted with a bit of violet. A dual pair of suns, one red and one white, were the only things that definitively showed that this was not earth if one were to look up. The ground around the cave entrance they exited was covered in a plethora of vegetation, most of which was hued in purples. (So before people get grumpy with this author, sky color is predominantly based upon the composition of the atmosphere and what wavelengths of light are reflected. Plant pigments are based around the molecules that absorb light. Some studies suggest that early plant life on Earth was had purple pigments from a predecessor of chlorophyll. Again, real life if stranger than fiction.)

“Whelp, I can safely say I didn’t see this one coming.” Greyson muttered to himself.

“What do you mean?” the Rabbit Beastkin woman asked him. Grey flinched a bit at this. He still wasn’t used to other people having hearing this good, and somehow kept expecting everyone to be and act the same as people back on Earth would have.

“Nothing really. Just wasn’t expecting the plants and tree to be purple is all.”

“What else would they be? Green?” She questioned with a tilt of the head. This question just seemed to knock the wind right out of him. Eloise, who had been walking next to Grey holding his hand reached out to pat his back comfortingly.

“Don’t worry about it…” Grey sighed. He waited a bit for the rest of the group of rescues to make their way out of the tunnel and into the small clearing they found themselves in. The group spread out, with a number of them either falling or sitting down, tears streaming down their faces. While on the one hand, Grey wanted to get everyone moving, he knew firsthand the shear release at finding oneself finally free of imprisonment the elation you could feel. Breaking the cells had been a large part of this, but finally seeing the open sky, even one as strange to him as this, it was indeed a heartening experience.

Greyson let go of Eli’s hand as she squinted against the light herself. Upon being able to truly see everything around her, she immediately began to run around the clearing, looking at one plant after another. The rest of the those who had been rescued rested, they all looked at the bright child happily running amongst the flowers.

As he watched Eli, Greyson noticed as the rabbit beastkin woman came up next to him and stopped a few steps away. She didn’t say a word, but waited patiently, enjoying the fresh air as much as any of the others. Her ears that had once been drooping in front of her face were now standing at attention (not a god damn sexual joke you perverts) twitching back and forth to each and every new sound coming from the area.

“Alright, what is it?” Greyson asked somewhat resignedly.

“It’s nothing really, just that a few of us were wondering what your plans were.” While her voice started off clear and strong, as she progressed, she lost more and more volume, until the end of the sentence could barely be heard.

“What do you mean, you’re going to show me the way to the nearest town. So long as you or someone else can do that, I don’t really care what any of you do.” Grey responded immediately. Wringing her hands together, it seems as though this was both the expected and unwanted answer to the question.

“Does that mean you won’t protect us as we travel?” She asked with a micro flinch that anyone not truly paying attention to her would have missed.

“If someone wants to go somewhere else, then they’re on their own, but anyone that goes with me will be safe until we reach the town, village or whatever constitutes civilization here.” The beastkin let of a bit of a relived breadth.

“Well, that is good to hear at least. We are currently in the middle of the Rogue Forest. The nearest village is about half a day’s hard walk ahead. This forest is known for its variety of monsters that will attack any unwary soul that tries to cross it.” She said at a low whisper meant for him alone.

Just my luck, I get transported to middle of an agro zone. Well, beggars can’t be chooseres and I am not There anymore.

“Huh, okay then…” he trailed off realizing that he had never asked for the beastkin’s name.

“Lola” she answered with a slight knowing smirk.

“Okay then Lola, lead the way, and I can make sure that the path is clear then.” Greyson promised.

With a short, but loud whistle, Lola brought everyone back together and explained the situation. Greyson was a bit relieved that he was not going to be obligated to speaking with this large group of people. While he’d never had a fear of public speaking (he always imagined everyone in their underwear, so long as they were over the consenting age) that didn’t mean that he looked forward to speaking with this group.

After a few heated words between a few of the members, all but a few of them turned to face Greyson. To this he stared back at the group.

“…You all do realize I have no idea where we are or where to go right? Follow Lola, she seems to have the grasp on the situation.” He said, mildly annoyed with their instinctive responses. Of course the strong person would know all. Never mind the fact that he hadn’t even been on this world more than an hour ago, but really? Help yourselves ya damn sheeple.

At this, the group, minus a few stragglers and malcontents, they proceeded to follow the small game trail they found leading away from the mountain.

The day passed and the group kept moving along the game trail. After an hour or so of walking, Eloise began to get this and started to fall back in the line. Greyson quickly ducked down and swept her up in her arms where she could relax and the miles passed by.

After a few hours of this travel, Greyson finally decided to ask the question that had been bugging him for a long time now.

“Hey, Lola. You seem to be familiar with the area enough to say that a bunch of monsters were in the area, be we haven’t found anything so far. You sure you know where you’re going?” He really wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but he felt that it may be the distance between life and death if he didn’t confront her on this. The rabbitkin looked back at him somewhat shocked.

“You mean you aren’t doing it on purpose?” She asked cautiously.

“…”

“Your aura is blanketing the area around us right now, and everything that is sensitive to mana or strength has gone into hiding.”

“Huh, I’m not sure if I should be happy about that or not.” Grey decided that he would have to experiment with this later. Seeing as how most if not all of the people with him right now were either injured, malnourished and exhausted, he didn’t feel as it was the appropriate time to play around with new skills and ideas.

“Grey strong” Eloise said looking up at him with a slight smile, before running off a bit to look at a flower to the side of the trail. Grey just shook his head and watched Eli as she explored the different sights and plants of this new world.

The group continued on for another half an hour or so before the sound of rushing water could be heard in the distance. A few minutes later, the forest trail they were walking on opened up to a clearing with a large river in front of them. A few hundred meters from where they came out was a large stone bridge that passed over the river, wide enough for three or four carriages to be able to cross at a single time. Past the bridge, a kilometer or two away, the rising walls of a town could be seen piercing up from the ground.

“There we are, the village of Tenax. I can’t believe we’re actually here.” Tears welled up in her eyes. A few of the others fell to the ground and began to weep openly. Feeling all of the tension leave them just from being able to see the end of their living nightmare.

“Almost there everyone, don’t stop now. Food and beds are just over there.” Grey said, attempting to keep the group moving.

Now I just hope that we don’t run into any problems trying to get in.